Critical care in a baccalaureate program.

The combination of increased patient acuity levels and the nursing shortage has increased the demand for critical care nurses. This situation suggested a need for collaboration between nursing education and practice in order to prepare new graduate nurses to enter practice in critical care areas. Faculty from a baccalaureate program and educators and administrators from acute care agencies formed an advisory committee to develop a critical care elective to be offered concurrently with the last clinical preceptorship experience in the baccalaureate sequence. Evaluations of the course revealed that students felt that the course increased their knowledge base and affected their decision to seek employment in critical care as a graduate nurse. The agencies found that the course facilitated recruitment and enhanced the smooth transition of graduate nurses into critical care. Through mutual collaboration between education and service, benefits to the health care system were extended.